5) Unity in the dressing room
Trending
Sir Alex Ferguson and Roberto Mancini failed in a task that Antonio Conte succeeded – getting Carlos Tevez to not be a rebel. The Argentine famously antagonized both his managers in the Premier League, with some blatant acts of rebellion, although theTevez that played for Conte was the most disciplined, hard-working and lethal Tevez the world had ever seen.
Multiple interviews from Conte's players refer to the team spirit that the Italian fosters, often instilling a siege mentality within his side to great effect. Conte’s Juventus were extremely hard-working and unified, and with a dressing room boasting the world’s biggest stars, surprisingly had little acts of dissent, with everyone pulling in the same direction.
Conte will heal a Chelsea side that has witnessed the worst of Jose Mourinho’s antics, although he does deal with the bad lemons with ruthlessness. Lorenzo Insigne has suffered the same fate for Italy, being frozen out of the national side due to a ‘lack of commitment’ to the cause, according to Conte.
However, the biggest stumbling block for Conte will be that this is his first foreign assignment, and given that he does not know English, might suffer to get his ideas across initially.
Former Sunderland manager Paolo di Canio had some words of advice, saying “I say [to him] be careful, try to learn the English mentality straight away," Di Canio said. "Try to learn [the language] and put next to you a good guy, an English guy, with good experience that can help you.”
“You can come with your staff because you trust your members of staff but it’s important to have a member of the club who understands everything of English football. Not only in the way you deliver your methodology or your tactics, but also in the way you need to deliver the words at the end of the game, before the game, the message during the week. Don’t do it like Di Canio!”
